


Made in the A.M.

by loveisallyouneed21



Category: Julie and The Phantoms (TV)
Genre: Angst, Canon Compliant, Childhood Trauma, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Hurt/Comfort, One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-01
Updated: 2021-02-01
Packaged: 2021-03-12 20:33:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,572
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29141574
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/loveisallyouneed21/pseuds/loveisallyouneed21
Summary: On what might be their last night together the boys dig deep and bare the remainder of their souls to Julie.
Kudos: 30





	Made in the A.M.

**Author's Note:**

> Title from Made in the A.M. by One Direction
> 
> This story kind of veered off course a little but here it is anyways.

Julie knocks lightly on the garage door that is propped open to let in the cool night breeze. “Hey. It’s me.” She gives an awkward little wave, like these aren’t some of the people that know her best in the world. Are people the right word to call them? Too confusing. Moving on. 

“Um, so I couldn’t sleep and I figured since this might be the last night we all can be together I thought I’d ask if I can come join you?” Julie rushes over her words, unsure of why she is suddenly so nervous around them. 

“Won’t tomorrow be our last night?” Reggie asks with a slightly confused look on his face. 

Alex sighs, “If tomorrow goes the way we are planning, we won’t be coming back after the performance at the Orpheum.” 

“Oh.” Reggie whispers. “But why are you asking us? This is your house. Your garage.”

Luke shoots Reggie a look of frustration and amusement before turning his gaze on Julie. “What Reggie means is please join us Julie. Our band isn’t complete without you. You are our family.” Luke makes space for her on the couch. 

The hours pass too quickly for their liking. They’ve been talking about everything and nothing. Julie looks at them each and wonders who used to live in her house. She can’t believe she never asked them before. 

Julie looks between Alex and Reggie, “So which of you used to live in my house?”

It was a logical question assuming that they hadn’t spent the 90s crashing in some stranger’s garage. 

Luke clears his throat. “Um, obviously you know it wasn’t my family’s house, but I did live here for awhile. After I ran away from home this is where I stayed.” 

“Right, so Alex? Reggie?” she asks again. 

Alex pauses before meeting Julie’s eyes. “Believe it or not this was Bobby’s house.”

“Wow.” Julie gasps. 

Reggie laughs humorously, “Yeah. Surprisingly he had the most stable family out of all of us. And that’s not saying much.”

Julie nods processing the new information. She opens her mouth to ask another question, but she closes it just as quickly because she doesn’t want to overstep. 

Luke gives her a warm smile. “Go ahead Jules, you can ask us anything.”

The other two nod in agreement so Julie goes ahead. “You all have spoken about your families a little bit. I know the gist. Alex’s parents being homophobic. Reggie’s parents always fighting. Luke’s parents not being supportive of his dreams. I just feel like there’s more to the story that I don’t know.” 

Luke raises his hand, which what? It’s not like he’s sitting in class in high school. Why is he acting so strange now? He quickly lowers his hand. “I can start. I mean you probably know the most about my family already so there shouldn’t be too much for me to add.” 

Luke gathers his thoughts before starting. “My parents wanted a more structured life for me you could say. They were always reminding me that they bought my first acoustic guitar so I could play in the church youth group, not become a rock star. They wanted me to enter a sensible career like accounting. I couldn’t take the constant pressure from them anymore to be someone I wasn’t so I left. Bobby’s parents weren’t around much so I don’t think they even noticed I was living in their garage.“ 

Julie nods taking it all in before looking down at Alex who was sitting on the ground. He smiles up at her. “Yeah I spent so much time here I sometimes felt like I was living here too.” He chuckles. 

Alex looks down at his hands, which have started playing with the strings on his hoodie. “Yeah so my parents kind of iced me out after I came out to them. I mean they didn’t kick me out. They still provided for me you know. I still had the essentials: food, water, shelter, etc. But sometimes it just was too much to bear. They wouldn’t talk to me unless it was a necessity. Rarely even looked at me. So there were more nights than not that I spent here with Luke.”

A tear slowly glides down Julie’s cheek. How could parents ignore their own child? She will never understand. She wipes the tear away and looks over to Reggie in the armchair. 

Reggie scrunches up his face. “So my family was rather… animated? You could say we were like a cartoon. The next Tom and Jerry. Except it would’ve been Ryan and Margaret. With the occasional surprise guest appearance of the one and only Reginald.” He chuckles quietly to himself. Luke clears his throat again giving Reggie a look. 

Reggie holds up his hands. “Okay, okay I know. Don’t deflect with humor. Not everything is or has to be funny.” He pauses. “Although I was really great back in the day. Like I know I’m pretty funny now but man Julie, I wish you could have heard some of my jokes back then. I mean –“ 

“Reggie.” Julie holds up one hand begging him to stop his rambling. “I don’t want you to feel like you have to tell me anything. Really. We can talk about something else.”

Reggie frowns. “No it’s not that I don’t want you to know. I do what you to know. It’s just not easy to talk about.” He shrugs. 

Julie nods her head and waits. Allowing him as much time as he needs. 

“So yeah. My parents argued a lot. It was kind of my fault you know. The arguments always started about money and they never let me forget just how expensive it was to have me around.” 

Alex and Luke jump in interrupting his self-deprecating remarks. “It was not your fault at all. You didn’t do anything wrong.” Alex objects. 

Luke chimes in “We’ve been over this Reg, none of the fault was on you. You don’t need to feel guilty for existing.” 

Reggie nods trying again to internalize it. “I know.” He whispers. “It’s just hard to change something you believed for so long.”

Reggie looks down before continuing. “At first that was all it was. Arguments. Raised voices.” Reggie begins playing with his fingers in his lap. 

“Until one day it wasn’t. Like I said I was really good at deflecting. So it took a little before the boys found out. I could usually hide the bruises. My dad was good about putting them in places that would be easy for me to cover up with a flannel or a jacket. One night though it was a bottle thrown at my head. The bottle missed and shattered on the wall. A shard was stuck over my eyebrow.” He reaches his hand up to touch his forehead as if the cut would still be there. 

He lowers his hand and sighs. “So I locked myself in the bathroom, cleaned up the cut and crawled out the window so I could get to band practice. I prepared an explanation as to why I had a bandage on my forehead. I walked in and tried my usual deflection but my voice wouldn’t stop shaking. Alex walked over and gently ran his finger over the bandage and asked what happened. Then I lost it.” He doesn’t want to clarify what ‘losing it’ means but Julie is smart and will likely infer that there was a lot of crying that night. 

“Anyway, I told them everything and after that night the boys were constantly trying to convince me to stay at the garage. Most nights they succeeded in convincing me and I’d join Luke and Alex.” Reggie finishes explaining. 

Reggie looks up and realizes that Julie is quietly sobbing to herself. “Oh no. I uh I didn’t mean to make you cry. I’m sorry.” His hands were aimlessly waving around like he didn’t know what to do with them. 

Julie shakes her head fervently. She composes herself before saying. “No don’t apologize. It just isn’t fair. Parents are supposed to support you, love you unconditionally, protect you. You all deserved parents like that.” 

None of the boys say anything, knowing that Julie is right. Julie looks at the time and is shocked to see it is already 2am. But she isn’t ready to end their night just yet. Not like this. 

“So you guys want to listen to some music? Or…” She trails off not sure what else to suggest. 

Luke jumps in to support her. “Yeah music would be great. What was that one band you were telling me about the other day?”

“One Direction?” She asks.

“Yeah them. Play one of their songs for us. We are still catching up on modern music you know.” He smirks at Julie who starts scrolling through her playlists. 

“Oh this one is fitting. It’s called Made in the A.M.” She hits play and rests her head on the arm of the couch letting the opening notes fill the room. 

Eventually Julie does get tired, but she still isn’t ready to leave. She opens her eyes, wait when did they close? Never mind. “Can I sleep here tonight?” She asks. 

“Of course.” Luke says grabbing a blanket to cover her body in warmth. She snuggles further into the couch and pulls the blanket tighter around her. The boys all whisper good night before singing her to sleep.

**Author's Note:**

> I love late night talks with friends. There is something about those late nights that make it easier to open up and be vulnerable with those you love most. I wanted Julie and the Phantoms to have that.


End file.
